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A new species of Neottia (Orchidaceae, Epidendroideae) from alpine border regionbetween China and Myanmar

2016-12-07 13:48:36

Neottia nujiangensis, a new species from alpine border region between China and Myanmar, is described and illustrated

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Neottia s.l. Guettard (1754: 374), including autotrophic Listera Brown (1813:201) and mycoheterotrophic Neottia, consists of approximately 55 species, distributed mainly in northern temperate areas with a few species extending into alpine mountains in tropical Asia. This genus is characterized by having resupinate flowers, a more or less curved column, retrorse-inclined anther, and two sectile and naked pollinia.
There are about 40 species of Neottia in China, about 30 of which are endemic to the alpine region in southwestern and eastern China, the border region between China and Russia. During Prof. Xiaohua JIN’s fieldwork in Gaoligongshan Mountains, the border region between China and Myanmar, from 2010 to 2015, they discovered a new species Neottia nujiangensis, it is sympatric and similar to Neottia fugongensis, but differs from it by having flowers densely along the rachis, pedicel and ovary about 5 mm long, lateral sepals ovate, petals elliptic, lip 4 mm long and not ciliate, lobelets widest at base, auricle dentate.
This new species usually grows under alpine thickets of bamboo and bush of Rhododendron spp. with elevation of 3800–4000 m. During their fieldwork in Eastern Himalayas in 2012, 2013, and 2014, about three populations with estimation of 1000 plants were discovered in alpine border region between China and Myanmar.

Since 2016, KIB (Kunming Institute of Botany) and CPC (Centre for Plant Conservation of Vietnam) have conducted several surveys in the transboundary karst regions in Northern Vietnam and Southern China and seven new species in the genus Begonia Linn. (Be…